Lew says Obamacare website issues 'not unique'

10/6/13 9:47 AM EDT

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said on Sunday he didn’t have an exact number of people who signed up for Obamacare and dodged questions about the issues with the signup website.

“What happened this week is we saw 7 million people rush to go on to the webpage to find out, what are their choices in this new marketplace to buy affordable health care?,” he said on “Fox News Sunday.” “You know, they have six months to sign up. This is a big decision. “

“We know that people take time to make important decisions like this. They go on, they compare their options. The fact that so many millions of people rushed to get information is a very good sign. And then your question about the website, I don't know about you, but, you know, I sign on and I get updates on my software, and I often get corrections that I have to re-update my software from major companies.”

"It is not unique that when you have a very large, new software program come out that people work to clean it up. I usually wait until it's 0.3 or 0.4 before I sign up. So many millions of people rushed to get in because that shows how much interest there is in -- in getting health care."

When Chris Wallace asked if the government wasn’t releasing the number who had signed up for the Affordable Care Act because it was small, Lew responded: “Well, it's obviously not my primary area of responsibility, so my knowing or not knowing is not -- is not going to be indicative.”